Live A Live

Square Enix’s Live A Live was originally released in 1994 in Japan, but a new version for the Nintendo Switch gives modern audiences a chance to experience the classic RPG.

Live A Live presents an interesting take on the JRPG genre, with seven separate stories to complete across wildly different genres. The premise deserves a lot of credit, as does its confident execution. However, some chapters are much better than others, and the combat isn’t quite strong enough to work as Live A Live’s central mechanic.

Live A Live arrives as a really excellent remake, so long as you don't mind a decent amount of modernisation. It should introduce a new generation to its anthology of stories.

Live A Live is a fascinating piece of JRPG history that’s more than worthy of the energy Square Enix has spent to remake it for a global audience with a beautiful new art style decades later. Its unusual vignette structure and lovable ensemble cast are a delight to spend time with, especially thanks to the addition of voice acting, and the ultimate story payoff remains surprising and stand-out among JRPGs even decades after its original iteration. Its seven different characters each make inventive and surprising use of the deceptively simple combat system, which adds even more flavor to the most challenging optional boss fights. The remake could have put a bit more work into mitigating some of the original’s more tedious grinds toward the end, but by the time that grind kicks in, Live A Live had enough hooks stuck in me that I couldn’t put it down until I’d jammed out to Megalomania for the final time.